HinesSight

Oh, no! Medical care facility planned for Salem's riverfront.

How many ways can Salem, Oregon depress me? More than this resident of 35 years can imagine, even after all that time. 

I'd never imagined that a giant white "Ross Dress for Less" sign would uglify the brickwork on Salem Center, greeting downtown visitors coming across the Center Street bridge with Welcome to Tackiness Land. 

Yet what I never imagined has come true.

And when plans for the industrial wasteland on the riverfront just south of downtown that used to be a Boise Cascade plant were first revealed, I never imagined that what was billed as a wonderful "mixed use" development would turn out to have two main uses: rental apartments and a rehabilitation facility.

(The trajectory of my riverfront frustrations is documented here, here, here, here, and here.

But unfantasized bad dreams do sometimes come true. Today the local newspaper reported "Care center proposed for Boise Cascade site." 

The latest proposal for the vacant Boise Cascade site could bring a $13 million medical rehabilitation facility and 50 jobs to downtown Salem.

Marquis Companies wants to build a 38,000-square-foot acute rehab center on a portion of the Boise site, said Mark Shipman, a Salem attorney who represents the site’s owners. The center would provide inpatient and outpatient care, typically on a short-term basis.

Scott Miller, director of property development for Marquis, said the company intends to be under construction by early 2014.

“We’re excited. We’re ready to go. We just need the OK from the city,” Miller said.

Mr. Miller, I'm not excited. I hope you never get to go. I hope you receive a NO from the city. After all, as the story goes on to say:

For years, the 13-acre Boise property has been touted for its potential for mixed-use development. In 2006, a study by the Urban Land Institute called for 200 condominium units, restaurants and shops, including a specialty grocery store.

Now we're getting 118 apartment units and a 52 bed rehab facility, where patients recovering from surgery or an accident will stay less than 45 days. That'll be a big draw for families visiting downtown Salem.

After their kids jump up and down after seeing the garish Ross Dress for Less sign ("Mommy, Daddy, stop, stop!!") they could actually have a good time at Riverfront Park. Finished with riding the carousel, the kids will gaze longingly at the rehabilitation facility next door, begging "Now can we see where sick people go to recover, please, please!!"

Understand, I'm not against health care facilities. I worked in health planning for quite a few years, including the Certificate of Need program that has to give a thumbs-up to this proposal.

I just think it's a horrible waste of prime downtown riverfront land to have the City of Salem give its blessing to uncreative, uninteresting, uninviting development that will go a long way toward determining the image of our not-so-fair downtown for decades, if not centuries, to come.

A Breakfast on BIkes post about this subject isn't as down on the rehab facility as I am. Yet it says:

But again, is this the kind of tenant and development that will draw people to want to live in the condos in the Boise shell?  This doesn't exactly scream, "downtown living!"  On the other hand - build the damn thing!  The site needs to be developed.  Compromise will be necessary.  I think I'm more bothered by the apartments configuration than this office and medical clinic. (What do you think?  Is there a fatal flaw here I'm missing?)

Well, I'm worried that the current understandable desire to be rid of the pile of rubble that currently is the Boise Cascade site is going to lock the citizens of Salem into saying "Hey, at least it's better than nothing" to development that likely will be a lot worse than the something that could be built not far in the future.

Real estate trends can change quickly.

My daughter tells me that the single family housing market in the Los Angeles area, where she and her husband are looking for a home, is booming. This after a few years when rentals ruled the real estate roost and few wanted to buy a house.

Once the Boise Cascade property is built on, it's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to change its character. This is Salem's one and only chance to make that area into a truly distinctive mixed use development. 

Like so much else in Salem, I suspect we'll end up with something blah that pales in comparison to what other cities have done with their riverfront. And that's depressing.

Michelle Obama shows off "Evolution of Mom" moves

It's been a good show business week for the First Lady. Last night she announced the Oscar for Best Picture via satellite from the White House.

I thought she did a better job than many of the "real" presenters, including a curiously distracted Kristen Stewart. (In Stewart's defense, she arrived on crutches, so probably was in pain while onstage.)

Earlier, on Friday, Obama rocked some dance moves with a cross-dressing Jimmy Fallon on his show. I'm sure happy her husband beat Mitt Romney. Could Ann Romney have pulled off what Michelle Obama did? 

Watch and marvel at some damn good dancing. From the only real woman performing.

 

Ross Dress for Less sign in downtown Salem is an abomination

Usually I shun the word "abomination." Sounds too Old Testament'y. As in fornication outside of wedlock is an abomination. 

Not true. But here's a genuine abomination: the Ross Dress for Less sign that was recently installed on Salem Center brickwork. 

Walking up Liberty Street, this is the garish sight that meets your eyes as you reach Center Street. A disgusting large white sign that is way larger than the moderately attractive Salem Center sign above it. The sign clashes with everything around it. Including the red brickwork.

Approaching downtown Salem from the Center Street bridge, the abomination is doubly abdominable because you can see both sides of the sign. 

This is exactly what downtown Salem does not need.

The sign is totally at odds with efforts to make the downtown area more inviting, cool, artistic, pedestrian and browsing friendly. This tacky Ross Dress for Less sign would be an eyesore at a tacky strip mall, but at least the two forms of tackiness would harmonize in their communal bad taste.

Salem Center, though, made a valiant effort -- largely successful -- to reflect the charming old brick buildings that still grace downtown Salem. Now the ugly Ross Dress for Less sign dominates the pivotal Center/Liberty landscape, screaming "welcome to a plastic tasteless downtown."

Which most of downtown isn't.

I'm writing this blog post rant a few blocks away, at The Beanery coffeehouse. Yes, I look out the front window and see "Starbucks Coffee" in white letters across the street. However, the Starbucks sign is hugely less obtrusive than the Ross Dress for Less sign.

Here's my vow, Ross Dress for Less: I will never, ever set foot in your store until that sign is replaced with a much more attractive one.

Now I probably would never have shopped there anyway, because I'm not into that style of clothing, but I'm pretty confident that the sign is going to lead other people to shun Ross Dress for Less who really would have bought stuff there.

Case in point: three letters to the editor in the Salem Statesman Journal (see here, here, and here)

Why on earth did the city of Salem Sign Code allow such a garish and ugly (as well as oversized and cheap-looking) sign to appear on the otherwise tasteful brick facade of the Salem Center mall?

Hopefully, their foolish lack of judgment can be re-thought and corrected.

This is the most important entrance to our downtown from the west.

Susan Trueblood Stuart, Salem

The Ross sign, so apply described by Susan Trueblood Stuart in her Feb. 13 letter, is indeed garish and an insult to the mall and to the city.It’s interesting to note that what stimulated a need for a sign code many years ago was the garish display of overwhelming, tasteless business signs and billboards that greeted everyone driving off the Marion Street Bridge.

Have we come a “full circle” of indifference for some sense of aesthetic value for signage and enforcement of the codes? Business signs are getting larger and more demanding; huge billboards are allowed to identify the adjacent business, and we can’t ignore those billboards whose brightly colored messages change every few seconds.

Let’s not “sign off” on Salem yet, but we could have dignified, well-designed signs that identify and inform, not distract and demand attention.

Keith Chrisman, Salem

The city of Salem has spent money on making downtown Salem more inviting and then they go and allow the large, horrific sign to be placed on Salem Center.

How could this have gone through proper channels and still be allowed?

The sign needs to be changed.

Diane Plummer, Salem

Clackamas County's strange rail phobia

Don't know if this condition is an official psychiatric diagnosis, but lots of people in Clackamas County (Oregon) sure seem to have it: an irrational fear of trains. 

Secondary related symptom: an irrational fear of highway transportation congestion caused in part by a lack of trains.

Such is the strangeness of thought disorders. This one just happens to have manifested in a majority of those voting in recent Clackamas County elections, along with a majority of county commissioners. 

Watching the malady manifest from Salem, a southward rail-lacking point where we'd love to have light rail to Portland and high speed rail to anywhere, the craziness appears decidedly misplaced.

Signs of the illness showed up first in 2011 when Clackamas County voters rejected paying $5 a year in increased auto registration fees to help replace the Sellwood Bridge. The fact that 70% of trips across the bridge orginated or ended in their county didn't sway the highway transportation-fearing citizenry.

Next, in 2012 Clackamas County voters passed an initiative requiring countywide voter approval before officials can spend money to finance, design, construct or operate any rail lines in the county.

This included light rail linking the county to the Portland area's acclaimed system, high speed rail, and even improvements to freight lines. Reasons for this rail-phobia were never made clear, but mental problems rarely have reasonable causes.

From my reading of news stories on the subject, many residents seemed to fear an influx of -- gasp! -- Portlanders. Hipsters. Gangsta types. Feminists. Skateboarders. Vegans. Not sure who exactly was visualized as debarking in Clackamas County and wreaking... something or other.

They were scary though. At least in the imagination of many county voters.

Now, in 2013, the craziness continues.

The county commissioners decided to put two light rail measures on the May ballot, even though there is no need for them. One measure involves an issue that can't be voted on by the entire county and the other involves a binding contract for light rail to Portland already signed, sealed, and decided upon.

The board of commissioners also wants to ask voters what they think of tolling I-205, which runs through Clackamas County, to dissuade drivers from using the freeway in case a new I-5 bridge is built over the Columbia.

Wow. County insanity is reaching new levels.

Clackamas County is afraid of light rail, which is an alternative to automotive travel. But voters didn't want to pay for a replacement Sellwood Bridge even though most of the users of the bridge drive cars to and from the county.

County leaders also are afraid of automotive travel on I-205, yet are equally afraid of alternatives to automotive travel like light rail. So it looks like they'd like people in Clackamas County, including businesses operating there, to either stay put or travel as slowly as possible through as much congestion as possible.

Not exactly a great economic development plan. But hey, I wouldn't expect phobias to result in sensible social policies.

Willamette Week reports status of Oregon weed scene

Nice overview in alternative newspaper Willamette Week of how marijuana is getting more and more mainstream in oh-so-green Oregon.

(Thanks to Jack Bogdanski for cluing me in to the stories via a blog post, since it's tough to find copies of WW down here in not-cool Salem.)

I found "You're Not High in Portland Until... 28 things to do when stoned in Stumptown" particularly entertaining.

Someday I hope the reporter will write a similar piece about Salem. Likely it wouldn't take too long. If he or she gets to 3 things to do, I'd be amazed.

Ride Riverfront Carousel... stare at Golden Man on top of capitol building... geez, I can't even get to three.

Being married to a dog-crazed woman, I took special note of one of Portland's 28: 

Do happy hour at Sniff Dog Hotel... Sip a coffee and watch a bunch of dogs go insane in the next room. Wouldn’t it be weird if instead of shaking hands, we sniffed each other’s butts?

Excellent idea. The happy hour, I mostly mean. The Sniff Dog Hotel does indeed have a happy hour at its cafe from 5 to 7 pm, Monday-Saturday. 

It all goes down Mon-Sat from 5-7pm. Come in and relax while your dog plays in our indoor park for free.

To insure doggie harmony, canine guests enjoying happy hour in the dog park will need to pass a brief temperament evaluation and be current on vaccinations prior to playtime. 

Please call ahead to schedule a temperament test 503-208-2366 — think of it as a simple “meet and greet”.

Let your dog run freely in our indoor 2000 sq. ft park
Watch the game or other events on our flat screen TV's
Free WiFi
Enjoy outdoor seating with your dog, weather permitting of course
Rent out the cafe for a special event, call 503-208-2366 for details

Sounds great. We don't have anything like that in Salem.

Well, that's not quite true. We do have a place where people can watch domesticated mammals running around crazily, vocalizing loudly for little or no reason, engaging in energetic nonsensical activities that have no discernable purpose.

It's called the Oregon legislature.

How to check out a possible Craigslist scam

Yesterday my wife was thrilled to get a quick response to our Craigslist "for sale" posting of a UV sterilizer for a pond. When she showed it to me, I thought Scam! I'd seen suspicious responses like this before, when I'd listed my scooter for sale.

Hello! let's do like this, actually now I'm not in town for now, I came to visit my son so i wont be able to meet with you but am ok with it and let me know the last price ok, I'll proceed in issuing a Check out to you and when you received the check , I will make arrangement for pick-up. So get back to me with below details asap.

Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Postal Code:
Phone Number:

And as soon as this is provided, the payment will be overnight to you and i will let you know when its mailed out. I need you to be honest with the sale as I am a God fearing person.

Thanks

I told her this message raised alarm bells for several reasons: no mention of actual item for sale; no questions about it; no phone number to call; overnight delivery of payment for a fairly cheap item; and of course, the "God fearing person" mention.

With the aid of Google, I found a great site for checking out likely/possible Craigslist scams: Lets Get the Craigslist Scammers. I was led to it after Googling the first part of the message above. You also can search on the site itself.

What came back was this very similar message from a Perry Smith. (Ours was from "Eddie K.)

Hello! thanks for getting back to me let's do like this, actually now I'm not in town for now, I came to visit my family so i wont be able to meet with you to see the item but am ok with the price as seen on the advert. I don't mind to give you $50 to withdraw the advert for you to see how serious i am in the transaction, i will contact my secretary to issuing a Check out to you and when you received the check I will make arrangement for pick up. So get back to me with below details to be on the check asap. Name: Address: City: State: Postal Code: Phone Number: And as soon as this is provided, the payment will be overnight to you and i will let you know when its mailed out. I need you to be honest with the sale as I am a God fearing person.Note you don't need to worry about shipping the items for me as soon as you have the check and have the check cash my shipper will come over for pick up Thanks God Bless

Looking through the comments, I came across an even closer match submitted by someone who'd been contacted by a scammer.

Hello! let's do like this, actually now I'm not in town for now, I
came to visit my son so i wont be able to meet with you but am OK with
the price as seen on the advert, I'll proceed in issuing a Check out
to you and when you received the check , I will make arrangement for
pick-up. So get back to me with below details asap.

Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Postal Code:
Phone Number:

And as soon as this is provided, the payment will be overnight to you
and i will let you know when its mailed out. I need you to be honest
with the sale as I am a God fearing person.

Thanks
Williams Jane
God Bless.

Lesson: check out any Craigslist emails which seem even possibly suspicious. These scammers don't appear to be very creative, since they tend to keep out sending out messages which already have been identified as scammy. 

Salem's riverfront development looking better, but not great

If you're a Salem, Oregon area resident who isn't regularly reading the Breakfast on Bikes blog, you should be!

It's not really about bicycling, though it partly is. Many, if not most, of the posts are focused on how our sometimes-fair city needs to improve alternative transportation and mixed use options.

Today's blog offering is an excellent overview of what's happening (and what isn't) with the re-development of the old Boise Cascade industrial property along Salem's riverfront: "Proposed Apartments for Boise Site Turn Backs on Park."

I agree with the overall conclusion. 

It's great news that things are heating up again on the Boise redevelopment project.

Interestingly, the condos in the Boise shell itself are on the backburner, and apartments for what had been the third phase are now on the table. The location has significant challenges for different kinds of access as it is hemmed in by the railroad, park, and creek on each side. It's not likely an easy site to work with. But...there's always buts.

...More particularly, the design, called The Residences at Riverfront Park, actually turns its back on the Park and creates something of a gated community instead of a procession of interesting urban spaces from public, to private-public, to private. On the edges and at transitions, it doesn't collaborate very well with the park.  But because of its location and the incentives offered by the City for developing it, it is reasonable to ask that it collaborate and be a better partner.  

...Fortunately there is a space fronting the Carousel parking lot designated commercial.  One can only hope for a cafe and sidewalk seating by the playground!  Or something like that, anyway.  That certainly looks like what the architect envisions in the elevation showing the entry drive.   Maybe a wider sidewalk and a couple fewer parking stalls???  (The site plan may show a wider sidewalk.)

...In particular, I'm sure there are ways the transitions between the park and private space could have been managed to create a more inviting and dynamic set of edge conditions, conditions for strolling and even for commerce. The massing and fencing just creates too much of a compound or mall enclosed and separated from Park and City.

In general, the style and site plan feels like something that belongs more in the suburbs than right downtown.  It's not terrible, but it could be better.

Such is Salem: a town that regresses toward mediocrity whenever an opportunity for great presents itself. We've seen this with downtown, the riverfront, Sustainable Fairview, Kroc Center, Keizer Station, the conference center, and other development efforts that end up being less than the Wow! they initially seem capable of.

I've been depressed about how the Boise Cascade re-development was looking. (See here and here.) But the current plans appear to be an improvement. 

I expected, though, that the development would be better integrated with Riverfront Park. Currently there's an ugly chain link fence separating the two. A new fancy chain link fence is a step in the right direction, I guess. 

Just not what I was hoping for. Much will be forgiven, however, if a Cafe Yumm! or Native Foods restaurant ends up in the commercial zone close to the Carousel. Salem desperately needs more healthy/tasty vegetarian dining options.

Kaufmann crushes Marquis in KGW marijuana debate

Sure, I'm biased. I want marijuana to be legalized in Oregon.

This made good sense before Washington, our neighbor to the north, made pot legal last November. Now, it makes even more sense -- since soon a good share of Oregon's population will be within an hour's driving time of state-sponsored marijuana stores.

Recently KGW TV held a "Straight Talk" debate on marijuana legalization between Roy Kaufmann, spokesman for the unsuccessful Measure 80 campaign that would have made pot legal here, and Josh Marquis, Clatsop County district attorney.

I liked how both Kaufmann and Marquis were respectful, well-spoken, and generally on target with their responses to moderator Laural Porter's questions. But if you watch the 25 minute debate (with a brief ad at the start), I bet you'll agree with me that Kaufmann had the stronger arguments.

Marquis' major less-than-persuasive argument was that use of marijuana in Oregon currently is (1) effectively decriminalized for possession of less than an ounce and (2) is so common, it's obvious that hardly anyone is being prevented from smoking pot under our current laws.

Pretty lame reasons for keeping the status quo.

Kaufmann pointed out that decriminalization (making possession of small amounts a misdemeanor) still results in some people losing their drivers license and incurring other penalties for using a substance that is much less harmful than alcohol. 

He said that he's asked law enforcement personnel if they've ever heard of someone smoking pot engaging in domestic violence, getting in a bar fight, or otherwise being spurred into violent behavior by the "demon weed."

The response: nope. Even Marquis admitted that marijuana users are prone to lying on the couch and raiding the refigerator rather than engaging in antisocial misdeeds. 

Why, then, asked Kaufmann repeatedly, should marijuana be illegal when society would be better off if people substituted pot for alcohol when they want to imbibe a consciousness-altering drug?

Marquis' weak response was that marijuana is still banned under federal law. (It's looking though, like the Obama administration is going to let the Washington and Colorado legalization experiments move forward.)

I appreciated Marquis' live-and-let-live attitude toward marijuana use, but thought this argued more for legalization than the status quo. If Oregonians are doing fine with quasi-open, widespread marijuana use, why not make it legal?

Kaufmann noted that a regulated system would bring revenues into state coffers, reduce the power of drug cartels, and probably make pot less easy for minors to obtain. 

Just about the only time I disagreed with Kaufmann, a skilled public relations guy, was when he said that marijuana legalization would be back on the ballot in 2016. Seems to me that 2014 should be the year when Oregonians legalize both same-sex marriage and pot.

NYT Tesla test drive makes me happy we got a Volt

Since we were not-so-happy owners of an all-electric Nissan Leaf before we sold the car and leased a Chevy Volt (battery powered, with back up gas generator), I"ve been following the fascinating tale of a New York Times automotive reporter's test drive of the $101,000 Tesla Model S sedan with considerable interest.

The title of the story wasn't good news for Tesla's marketing efforts: "Stalled Out on Tesla's Electric Highway." Nor was the story itself.

John Broder relates the horrors of trying to drive the Tesla, which has an estimated 300 mile range, between charging stations 200 miles apart -- seemingly well within the Model S capability. He ended up running out of electrons and needing a tow.

Tesla’s New York service manager, Adam Williams, found a towing service in Milford that sent a skilled and very patient driver, Rick Ibsen, to rescue me with a flatbed truck. Not so quick: the car’s electrically actuated parking brake would not release without battery power, and hooking the car’s 12-volt charging post behind the front grille to the tow truck’s portable charger would not release the brake. So he had to drag it onto the flatbed, a painstaking process that took 45 minutes. Fortunately, the cab of the tow truck was toasty.

At 2:40 p.m., we pulled into the Milford rest stop, five hours after I had left Groton on a trip that should have taken less than an hour. Mr. Ibsen carefully maneuvered the flatbed close to the charging kiosk, and 25 minutes later, with the battery sufficiently charged to release the parking brake and drive off the truck, the car was back on the ground. A Model S owner who had taken delivery the previous day watched with interest.

After the story was published the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, challenged Broder in an excessively inflammatory way. Musk went so far as to claim that Broder drove the Tesla in circles upon reaching a charging station in order to show that its battery became completely deleted.

His evidence was the auto equivalent of a "flight recorder" installed in the car. Broder then responded to the negative review of his negative review in "That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn't."

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors, has now responded in detail to the account of my test drive of his Model S electric car, using the company’s new East Coast Superchargers, that was published in The Times on Feb. 10. His broadest charge is that I consciously set out to sabotage the test. That is not so. I was delighted to receive the assignment to try out the company’s new East Coast Supercharger network and as I previously noted in no way anticipated – or deliberately caused – the troubles I encountered.

An independent analysis of the charges, counter-charges, and counter-counter-charges by Rebecca Greenfield was tellingly titled "Elon Musk's Data Doesn't Back Up His Claims of New York Times Fakery."

I agree. Methinks Musk would have been better off if he'd apologized to Broder for the trouble with the Tesla, and left it at that. The more fuel that gets added to the reporting of the disastrous test drive, the more attention will be paid to it by prospective Tesla buyers.

A TIME story points to the point of this brouhaha: "It's Not About the Range."

In a gasoline-powered world, it’s not reasonable today to expect an electric car to operate in the same way as a gasoline-powered car—just as it’s not reasonable for Tesla to expect drivers to change their behavior to fit a new technology. Broder made it clear to me at least in his review that he was trying to test out his Tesla S in real-world conditions—and real world drivers won’t always follow the rules to the letter. Think of all the work tech companies like Apple have put into making their gadgets essentially idiot-proof. Tesla doesn’t seem to be there yet.

...The average American drives about 37 miles a day—well within the range of electric cars that are much cheaper and less advanced than the Tesla S. All-electric cars will serve a different function than gasoline-powered vehicles. Shorter drives, brief commutes, urban travel—not long distances. And that’s where electrics can have an advantage over gas cars, especially if more cities follow New York’s example and create special parking spots for battery-powered cars. Electrics need to be thought of less as a “car”—because that promises performance it can’t always deliver—than a new and often more efficient way of getting from most of the point As and point Bs of our lives.

Absolutely.

But electric cars like the Volt enable drivers to enjoy the best of both worlds. Most of the year we've been getting 35-40 miles of battery power from our Volt; less in cold weather. After that the gas generator kicks in seamlessly and we cruise along just like we're in a regular car.

Our experience with the all-electric Nissan Leaf was akin to Broder's -- though we never ran out of battery power (my wife came close once, but managed to get home). In the Leaf, as with the Tesla, you'll never be able to forget that you're driving an electric car.

If you run out of juice, "filling up" is nowhere near as easy as getting a few gallons of gas. Charging stations are few and far between. They don't always work. Another electric car could be using the charger(s). It usually takes hours to fully charge up; only half an hour or so with a Level 3 charger, but these are rare at the moment (being expensive). 

I'm a big electric car enthusiast. I hope the Tesla is a success. However, Tesla's CEO should have acknowledged that we're in the infancy of electric car infrastructure and acceptability. It takes a pioneering spirit to be an owner of one.

We had to admit to ourselves that we weren't willing to be one of those pioneers. That's why we sold our Leaf. But last I heard, the new owner of our car was happy with it. And we're very happy with our Volt. Likely the day will come when electric cars are commonplace. Broder's test drive just shows that between now and then, there will be bumps in the road.

Land paddler reviews LongBoard Larry's Walkabout

At the age of sixty-three, I took up land paddling on a longboard.

This was after I spent a few months doing the push with your foot thing, which I never felt comfortable with. Discovering the Kahuna Big Stick changed my longboarding life.

Being a senior citizen land paddler, I figure that I need to evolve my longboarding approach as expeditiously as possible.

After all, when you're sixteen you've got a lifetime of skateboarding/ longboarding ahead of you. Same is true at sixty-four, but with a big difference: my remaining time of being alive likely is much less.

So in just six months I've tried land paddling with a Landyachtz Switch, Kahuna Creations Haka Moko, Norgeboards Kalai, and now...

LongBoard Larry's Walkabout. It's my current favorite. By far.

Not because the others aren't good longboards. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. I've just become comfortable enough with my land paddling to appreciate what the Walkabout offers: another dimension of movement, plus the ability to "pump" the board -- a skill I've gotten a taste of, but not the full meal deal.

I've had the Walkabout for a week. Been on it five times, for a total of about twenty miles. Bottom line: it's a great longboard for land paddling if you're looking for something beyond the carving/cruising ordinary.

By which I mean, most land paddlers, who push with a stick rather than their foot, look for a board that will turn easily (carve) and is stable going straight and on downhills (cruising). 

For someone getting into land paddling, that's the way to go at first. I'd never set foot on a skateboard before I got my first longboard. It took me a while to feel comfortable rolling along on four wheels that turn with body weight shifts, and have no brakes. 

Now that I am, I really like the Walkabout's pumping set-up.

If you're not familiar with pumping, head over to PavedWave, "the soul of distance skateboarding," and click on How To Pump. The videos will speak a thousand words (or more).

Here's a sample.

 

Pumping strikes me as magical. It's a way of making a longboard move without pushing with either a foot or a stick. Just through body rotation and weight shifts. I kind of grasp the physics of pumping. 

But it's still magical.

I've given it a try now that I have the Walkabout. Pumping is tough to learn; almost impossible, it seems, with a longboard that isn't set up properly for pumping -- as the Walkabout is. Mine has Bennett trucks front and back, with orange Otang Inheat wheels.

I'm beginning to get that pumpin' feeling, albeit with the aid of my Big Stick land paddling. That is, so far I can't keep the Walkabout moving for very long by just pumping. However, I get extra energy, let's call it land paddling "turbocharging," by using a pumping motion after pushes of the stick.

For now, pumping is an add-on to my land paddling. My goal is to get good enough at pumping so it becomes the main, or at least a major, way of moving me along. 

Regardless, I'm already really liking the extra dimension the Walkabout brings to my longboarding.

The trucks produce a "swoopy" feel that is very different from my other boards. Hard to describe -- sometimes I feel like a slalom skier while land paddling with knees close together and my waist/core making the S-curve turning happen.

Never felt this before. In dance terms, it's sort of like the difference between waltz and swing: both turn, but not at all in the same way, with the same feeling. The Walkabout is a swing dancer, fun, lively. 

It wants to move. "Play with me!" it begs.

Which sort of proves the adage I followed when playing competitive tennis for many years: when you feel like you aren't playing as well as you could, blame it on the equipment, not your technique. That usually isn't true, but sometimes it is.

My main message is that if you're a land paddler, expand your longboard horizons to include pumping boards like the Walkabout. I use the Runmeter iPhone app when I land paddle, so keep track of my distance, speed, and such through its GPS'ability.

Yesterday I was about 20% faster on my usual seven mile land paddling route. With less perceived exertion.

Like I said, that's with half-assed (or less) pumping technique. And the 42 inch Walkabout feels as stable as my 60 inch Kalai when I go over the cracks, bumps, twigs, leaves, and whatnot on the rural Minto Brown Island Park asphalt trails that I enjoy.

The only downside to the Walkabout that I've noted so far is that the swoopier Bennett front trucks aren't as stable on downhills as the Kalai's Original trucks. I feel more wheel wobble, but not drastically or scarily so. I've just been taking downhills more cautiously during my first week with the Walkabout.

Give Longboard Larry a look.

Surprisingly, I'm only a fifteen minute drive from their shop in Independence, Oregon, yet didn't even know about them until I ran across a mention of Larry's boards while doing some cruising of the Net.

Larry himself demo'd the Walkabout for me, so I can testify that someone who knows how to pump can do it on that board. Me, I'm still a pumping baby. Well, maybe a toddler. Who knows, though... I could be walking one of these days. 

Here's the poetic LongBoard Larry description of the Walkabout. Nicely written. Made me want to try one out.

The Walkabout was designed with distant treks in mind, true to the aboriginal rite of passage. Imagine long distance pumping rides that will take you across cities, counties, states, deserts, and countries. Tune into your surroundings and lose yourself on the extra wide concave, with a slightly upturned nose that locks you into place as you move up and down the deck.

On the Walkabout, your pumps require less effort and return more energy with the most high-tech composition LBL has created to date. A glass, birch, and carbon-fiber sandwich that's ready to groove to the drone of the didgeridoo, and whatever other rhythms you're ready to throw it's way. Multiple rear truck holes allow you to further fine tune the flex. 

Length: 41.5"
Width: 9.75"
Wheelbase: 27.5, 28.5, 29.5" 

This is has been a project that I worked on with James Peters of www.pavedwave.org For more information on pumping technics and set ups check out James site.

Whew! No reason to worry about Rubio being GOP savior.

Last night I watched Marco Rubio's Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address with some trepidation. After all, TIME magazine has just annointed him on its cover as "The Republican Savior." 

And I'm a Democrat. I don't want the GOP to be saved. I want it to continue on down its road to ruin.

Thankfully, proving that my prayers to Tao, Buddha-nature, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster paid off, Rubio gave a thoroughly mundane speech which, in my oh-so-reasonable opinion, wouldn't sway many (if any) Dem-voters to the Republican side.

I tried to picture independently minded swing voters watching Rubio. I did my best to forget what I knew about him, and just focus on how he came across in his big TV moment.

Not well.

And I'm not talking about his distracting hand motions, dry lips, and weird mid-speech drinking of water from a plastic container (didn't they have a classier looking glass handy?) If anything, those things made Rubio look appealingly human.

No, what struck me was how the GOP continues to fail to understand how out of touch the party is with a majority of Americans. 

The country has moved on. The Republican Party hasn't.

It's acting like a guy still trying to sell VHS tapes when almost everybody watches movies on DVD or via online streaming. Dude, your pitch was fine for the 1980s, but not now.

After the financial industry meltdown, most people don't believe that big corporations are innocents, while big government is the evildoer. Neither do most people believe that traditional marriage is threatened by giving same-sex couples the right to marry. And other rights.

Anti-science global warming denying doesn't cut it any more, not after such clear signs as extreme heat/drought events, record rains, unusually powerful storms, disappearing Arctic ice, and such. Blathering about "broken borders" is no longer persuasive when illegal immigration is at a record low.

The stock market is nearing its highest level ever, so obviously the business community isn't fearful of a socialist Obama second term. Marijuana has been legalized in two states; medical marijuana use is steadily spreading; calling for fighting harder on the "war on drugs" is increasingly laughable. 

Women aren't willing to roll back the clock and be told what they can and can't do. Forced vaginal ultrasounds, denial of contraceptive coverage, and refusal to support legislation aimed at stopping violence against women isn't going to win female votes for the GOP.

Yet the Rubio I watched last night was clueless about all this.

He sounded almost exactly like Mitt Romney. Except less presidential. If Rubio is the great 2016 Republican hope, I can hear Democratic strategists saying "Bring him on!" I was prepared to see a guy who could reach out to women, minorities, young people, libertarian-minded independents.

But, nope. I saw an old white guy mentality in a youngish brown guy body. Slightly more appealing on the outside; same right-wing crap on the inside.

Gun nut or mass shooter? Sure look the same.

Here's a great "comic" by Jen Sorensen that would be funnier if it wasn't so disturbingly true.

l've been thinking in much the same way about what would happen if the NRA's wet dream became reality, and the United States was filled with people carrying military-style assault rifles and other guns openly around in public.

That'd be great for mass shooters. Blend right in.

Start shooting in a mall, kill a few people, then run around a corner with your rifle over your shoulder and start yelling, "Oh, my God! There's a shooter back there! Take cover. I'm going to move on and keep warning other people."

When everybody is carrying a gun, there will be no way to tell the "good guys" and "bad guys" apart. Until it is too late. Well, unless would-be mass murderers wear t-shirts like the one shown in the comic.

(But would they tell the truth and check "evil" if they actually are evil?)

USA Today story about older motorcycle riders mentions...ME!

Here's what I found most interesting in a USA Today story by Kim Painter, "Older motorcycle riders more likely to get badly hurt" -- the parts that mentioned me.

Brian Hines, 64, a writer from Salem, Ore., rode a motorcycle as a younger man, but when he wanted to return to two-wheeled riding in 2009, he took some extra safety steps: He got a motorized scooter instead of a full-sized bike, repeated an optional safety course, bought a highly-visible white helmet and avoided riding at night or in the rain.

His precautions paid off and he never had an accident, Hines says.

...As for Hines, he did sell his scooter in 2012 – something he says greatly pleases his wife. "She was worried every time I took off." He says he likes a little risk in his life, "but there are ways to fill that need without risking life and limb." He's taken up skateboarding instead.

The rest of the story is worth reading also. Basic message: older riders need to recognize the increased risks they face because of poorer reaction times, decreased visual acuity, and such.

Reporter Kim contacted me after reading a blog post that I'd written after I'd started riding my Suzuki Burgman 650 maxi-scooter, "Older motorcycle riders, don't be scared by statistics." She thought that I made a lot of sense. 

Which, of course, I did. 

Davis talks about how the risks of motorcycling can be reduced markedly by going against the grain of what gets riders injured or dead.

That's why I have a white scooter, wear a white full face helmet, always wear complete protective gear, have green day-glo striping on my jacket, drive a scooter with antilock brakes, rarely drive at night or in the rain, don't speed or take turns too fast, don't ride after drinking alcohol, and -- vitally important -- retook the Team Oregon training class before I started my scootering.

I'm taking the same minimize-risks approach with skateboarding (actually, longboarding, but I can't blame Kim for using the more generic understandable term). I believe in living life crazily, on or off a four-wheeled board.

However, there is no contradiction between (1) taking risks which other people will view as "crazy," and (2) lessening those risks as much as possible. After all, getting hurt from a preventable accident often is better termed stupid than crazy. 

So I've continued to wear full protective gear almost 100% of the time when I'm on my longboard. With my big scooter, I never broke that rule. But since a longboard is quite a bit less dangerous than a motorcycle or scooter, occasionally I hop on one of my boards without a helmet or gloves on.

But rarely. I know that at 64, I don't heal nearly as fast as I did at 14, or 24. Older motorcyclists need to keep that in mind also. Be crazy and have fun. While being as safe as possible.

Oregon should vote on gay marriage AND legal pot in 2014

Let's do it, Oregonians! Catch up to Washington state on "living free." Last year Washington affirmed the legality of gay marriage and legalized marijuana in a groundbreaking election. 

While Oregon weenied out on legalizing pot. So now our neighbor state to the north will reap the tax revenues from Oregonians journeying across the border to score some legal weed. 

Today I was excited to learn that Basic Rights Oregon has decided to put a measure on the 2014 ballot that would legalize same-sex marriage. 

Basic Rights Oregon has been laying the groundwork for a statewide vote on the issue since 2009. In 2011, however, the group decided not to go to the ballot in 2012, with Frazzini saying at the time that there wasn’t enough consensus on the issue to have a “reasonable expectation of success.”

But with last year’s landmark victories and a continued shift in the polls toward more public acceptance of gay marriage, Basic Rights officials concluded that they could find fertile ground in 2014.

 The most recent public survey on the issue, by Public Policy Polling in December, found that 54 percent of Oregon voters believed same-sex marriage should be legal, while 40 percent were opposed.

The campaign's web site, Oregon United for Marriage, already is up and running. Excellent.

The time is ripe for marriage equality, given the large shift in both public opinion and governmental policies toward gay marriage in recent years.

Likewise, the tide has turned for marijuana legalization, with voters in Colorado and Washington approving legal pot.

An architect of the successful Colorado effort, Steve Fox, came to Oregon and advised marijuana advocates to wait until 2016 to put another legalization initiative on the ballot. 

Getting a legalization measure on the 2016 ballot – a presidential election year –would translate into greater voter support than if activists tried in 2014.

"What we have seen since 2000 is that if you do a ballot initiative related to marijuana on a presidential election year ballot as opposed to a mid-term election, the difference is stark," he said.

Fox said the extra two years gives voters the chance to see how legalization has worked in Colorado and Washington.

But his advice to wait another three years for another legalization initiative was a tough sell for some Oregon activists. They cite Oregon's proximity to Washington and the relatively narrow defeat of Measure 80, Oregon's legalization ballot measure, as reasons for pursuing an initiative sooner.

I agree with the activists.

Even more so now that a measure to legalize same-sex marriage almost certainly will be on the Oregon ballot in 2014. This will raise the visibility of the midterm election to nearly a presidential-year level.

I don't see how waiting to vote on marijuana legalization until 2016, when conservatives will be fired up to recapture the White House after eight years of Obama, makes sense. A lot of open-minded Oregonians are going to be eager to vote for same-sex marriage in 2014.

Might as well give them the opportunity to vote for legal pot on the same ballot. 

But those who crafted the 2012 Oregon initiative need to be replaced. I thank them for their effort and enthusiasm. However, the initiative was poorly thought-out, and the campaign to pass it was a disaster. Even so, the vote was close. 

With competent people in charge, there's a very good chance Oregon could legalize both marijuana and gay marriage next year.

Unfunny humor about gun control

Yesterday a bunch of people brought guns to the Oregon capitol building. They paraded outside showing off their rifles, handguns, shotguns, and other pseudo-macho paraphenalia.

Some even brought them inside, since Oregon is one of the few states that allow someone with a concealed handgun permit to carry around a military-style assault rifle in the halls of a Capitol. 

Now, news of this sort of event should stimulate a reasonable question: "Who the heck would be so crazy as to carry guns around in public like that for no good reason?"

After all, if I was a tourist visiting a state capitol, started to walk in, and saw a crowd brandishing weapons, I'd think What the #$@! are these fools up to? 

Reading newspaper reports of yesterday''s anti-gun control rally, I didn't get an answer to that query. There seemed to be no point to the gathering other to give some gun owners an opportunity to show off their toys in public.

What gets me, every time I see black-clad guys and gals strutting around with their weapons, is how little they have to be proud about. It takes zero courage and zero skill to own a gun. All you need is a VISA card. Shooting defenseless animals from long range, or defenseless targets, earns zero "guts points." 

I respect people who take risks. For twenty years or so I've been active in various forms of martial arts. People who fight other people skilled in fighting, even in a controlled situation, deserve a big thumbs-up for having the guts to risk getting hurt in the course of developing their skills.

Ditto for combat soldiers who use their guns to fight guys who also have guns. But walking around the Oregon Capitol with an AR-15... that's ridiculously lame. 

The whole "look at me with my big guns!" thing would be comical if it wasn't so unfunny. Doonesbury nailed the dark humor of this country's failure to protect our citizens from guns in a February 3 strip.

Several letters to the editor in today's Oregonian mentioned the unfunny comic. Here's one:

The Feb. 3 Doonesbury comic expressed my thoughts far more precisely than I could have written.

To quote: "What are we like as a people? ... Nine years ago we were attacked. 3,000 people died. In response, we started two long, bloody wars and built a vast homeland security apparatus -- all at a cost of trillions. ... During those same nine years, 270,000 Americans were killed by gunfire at home. Our response? We weakened gun laws."

I grew up in eastern Oregon and learned to use a gun for hunting game or for killing predators. A real sportsman/woman does not use a semi-automatic weapon.

I do not believe the majority of Americans, nor Oregonians, believe we need semi-automatic weapons, a gun on every corner or on every person walking down the street, and certainly not in our schools.

Our children are far too precious to grow up in that kind of gun culture.

ROBERTA HUNTER PARSONS-WACHHOLZ 
Northwest Portland

Nicely said, Roberta. You make good sense. Way more than a speaker at the We Want More Killings rally at the capitol made. The Salem Statesman Journal reported:

Republican lawmakers who spoke at the rally Friday said the Constitution is under attack and that they would fight for the Second Amendment rights of Oregonians.

Rep. Tim Freeman, R-Roseburg, is drafting legislation to be introduced next week called the “Second Amendment Preservation Act.” Freeman’s office would not provide any details about the bill Friday, but a speaker during the rally told participants it would make it illegal to enforce any new federal gun control measures that infringed upon Second Amendment rights.

Wow. More unfunny humor.

These supposed defenders of the Constitution have no idea how the Constitution works. Instead of marching around with their guns, they should spend more time learning about what makes our country great -- as ably designed by our founding fathers.

Ever heard of the Supreme Court, Rep. Freeman and unnamed gun rally speaker? This is who gets to ultimately decide what is constitutional and what isn't. Other courts make that determination before a case gets to the Supreme Court.

You can't pass a law that defines what the Second Amendment says, or doesn't say. The Supreme Court gets to do that saying. 

Like I said, this sort of ignorance would be comical if it wasn't so unfunny. People who are clueless about the Constitution are pretending that they're the only ones standing between us and tyranny. That's hilarious. 

Except, it isn't funny.

My first impression of Brakeboard longboard brakes

At 63 years old, I came late to longboarding (skateboarding on, duh, a long board). But I'm on the early cutting edge of those trying out an innovative way of stopping on a longboard or skateboard: the Brakeboard. 

I must be one of the first to order a Brakeboard, which recently started to be sold by Ben Newman, an Australian. They're pricy, including shipping from halfway around the world. However, I was drawn to buy this braking system for a simple reason:

Stopping on a longboard is important, yet not easy. Especially at speed.

Sliding (either sit-down or stand-up) takes considerable skill. Dragging a foot on the ground is problematic at higher speeds. Plus, I've become addicted to land paddling, where a stick is used on flats or mild uphills to propel the board rather than pushing with a foot. So I'm not used to balancing on one foot, which is how foot dragging is done.

Being old, I'm also not interested in learning how to stop at higher speeds through trial and error -- "error" likely involving some painful falls. Yet I wanted the option of going down steep'ish hills, like my driveway, and being able to stop safely.

So I ordered a Brakeboard, along with a set of wheels designed for the braking system (other wheels can be used with the Brakeboard, but they need to be modified). 

Here's the bottom line of my first impressions: the Brakeboard is well designed and works well, albeit with a few quirks that I'll describe below.

I made a video of a test run down my driveway. Keep in mind that I've only been longboarding for about seven months, and would be utterly unable to cruise down the driveway without the Brakeboard, as I note in the video.

 

I haven't dealt with the Brakeboard squeaks. According to Ben this should be easy to fix by rubbing the brake parts with a lightly oiled rag.

I'm also hearing some clinking in the rear Brakeboard truck when I do my land paddling thing without braking. Some minor adjustments seem to be called for. And I decided to upgrade the bearings that came with the Brakeboard.

To my mind, these are small "shakedown" issues.

I'm impressed with the quality of the Brakeboard design. A lot of thought and testing clearly went into this longboard/skateboard braking system. Quite a few people have tried to come up with a mechanical way to stop a board. Looks to me like the Brakeboard is the best product on the market.

Being only moderately handy with tools, I was moderately worried about installing the Brakeboard on my Landyachtz Switch, since it required drilling a 3/4 inch hole through the board. This went smoothly, though. 

Here's how I handled it.

Following the installation instructions on the Brakeboard web site, after taking off the original rear truck I slipped the Brakeboard truck over the screws and penned in the outline of the truck. Then I measured where the center of the hole in the truck is, and located that spot by measuring from the edges of the outline. With a small drill bit I made a pilot hole at that center-of-the-hole spot.

I bought an Ace Hardware 3/4 inch hole driller thingie that attached to my cordless drill. It uses a bit that protrudes slightly beyond the round hole driller. That fit into the pilot hole. It took a while to get through the wood, but the result was good:

After that, it was just a matter of following the Brakeboard installation instructions. I'd never removed longboard trucks or wheels before, so it took me longer to install the Brakeboard than someone experienced with this stuff would take.

Live and learn... even (or especially) at 64.

Getting the adjustment nut in the right place took some time. Too far out, and the Brakeboard won't brake. Too far in, and the wheels won't turn freely when the brake isn't being applied. Once I got one side adjusted properly, it was pretty easy to replicate that on the other side. In the end, the parts looked like this:

The metal part on the right presses on the metal part on the left when the pedal on top of the board is pressed. Having the parts quite close, but not touching, seems to be The Right Distance. Pressing the two parts together, then fiddling with the adjustment screw, was my first approach.

Putting on the wheel, complete with bearings, and tightening the wheel nut was the final test. As shown in the video I made, the goal is to have the wheels spin freely with no brake, and then to stop firmly when the Brakeboard pedal is pushed.

All in all, installing the Brakeboard was pleasantly challenging.

I learned quite a bit about longboard parts and how they fit together. As Ben says in the installation instructions, getting the upper and lower parts of the Brakeboard to mesh is a tight fit, but eminently doable. I used the small end of the wheel installation tool to nudge the pedal pin into position after wondering "how the heck is that thing going to fit?"

Some longboard/skateboard purists feel that putting a brake on a board is a horrible idea. "Learn how to stop by sliding, dude, or don't ride a board!" they say. Well, that sounds ridiculous to me. There's no Eleventh Commandment, Thou shalt not use a mechanical brake on a skateboard.

Ben Newman has made an excellent product. It will appeal to some longboarders and skateboarders, but not to others. I like the Brakeboard.

Like I said, it's fairly spendy. However, so is getting injured on your board because you weren't able to stop before you hit something, or something (like a car) hit you.

Oregon's First Cats survive Governor's mansion dog invasion

The state trooper guarding Mahonia Hall, the Oregon Governor's mansion here in Salem, gave me some faulty intelligence. I'm not blaming him; the enemies I asked about are notoriously sly and unpredictable.

"Is it OK to bring our dogs in? We'd been told that the First Cats might be running around the mansion." "You're fine," the trooper replied. "They'll be shut away upstairs." 

(Martha Russell photo)

So began a saga that could have ended in a public relations nightmare for the Willamette Humane Society. Imagine the headline: Oregon's First Cats terrorized by dog pack at lunch won by donors at Humane Society event.

My wife, Laurel, organized the lunch with Cylvia Hayes, Oregon's First Lady (who is the partner, but not the wife, of Governor John Kitzhaber -- which earns her some undeserved criticism from cultural Neanderthals for using the title).

We'd successfully bid on the lunch back in October at the Humane Society's Boo Bash fundraiser. Cylvia had agreed to host a lunch for ten, with Iggy's Catering generously providing the donated meal.

It took a while for Laurel to coordinate arrangements with Mary Rowinski of the Governor's Office, but today we and our two dogs set off for Mahonia Hall under electric power in our Chevy Volt (appropriate, since Cylvia has worked in sustainable economic development and clean energy for over twenty years.)

Laurel wasn't sure whether we should bring in old dog Serena and young dog Zu Zu. Mary had told us that the Governor's mansion was dog-friendly and our canines were invited to visit with the First Dog. Also, that Mahonia Hall was home to two cats. 

Now, to our dogs "dog-friendly" and "home to two cats" wasn't a contradiction.They love to chase cats. Cats are fun! Especially when they run.

But Laurel and I were worried that the mellow vibe of our lunch with the First Lady would be endangered (to put it mildly) if our dogs not only caught sight of the cats, but also caught some part of them. I worried even more that this would happen after our dog pack had careened through antiques, historical memorabilia, and other fragile furnishings in Mahonia Hall.

However, the state trooper's cheerful assurance that Serena and Zu Zu were welcome to attend the lunch assuaged our anxieties. Here's Laurel (in light blue jacket) being greeted by Cylvia and the First Dog, Tessa, a good-natured and attractive Rhodesian Ridgeback. Serena is in the foreground, scoping out the First Scents in the driveway. 

(Martha Russell photo)

iPhone camera in hand, I started to document our tour of the Governor's mansion that Cylvia said she'd take us on while Ian Johnson of Iggy's Catering was finishing the lunch preparations. Serena and Zu Zu seemed to feel right at home. In retrospect, though, I should have paid more attention to how eagerly Zu Zu (at the top) was sniffing around.

Because when we rounded that corner of the room, my worst fear -- and our dogs' greatest joy -- came into view. Cat!!! Strangely, I saw the cat sitting on the back of a chair before Serena and Zu Zu did. Maybe because the room was so filled with feline smells, they couldn't tell exactly where the cat was.

(Martha Russell photo)

Some excitement, but no disaster, followed. I yelled Cat, Cat! while putting a leash on Serena and holding Zu Zu by her collar.

Just in time, because First Cat #2 materialized on the floor. Serena got her nose swiped at, but the claws missed. At that point I started to be more worried about whether our dogs would get hurt, than whether the cats would.

Cylvia reassured the cat that all was well, even with two strange dogs running around the Governor's mansion. The First Cats then were escorted to another part of Mahonia Hall. We never saw them again.

On the other hand, Tessa never left Cylvia's side during our tour of Mahonia Hall. They're very close.

(Along that line, as a blogger I'd like to repeat some juicy stories Cylvia told us about what goes on under the covers of the bed she and Governor Kitzhaber share, but I'm going to hold off in hopes that the National Enquirer will pay me for the lurid details involving sleeping arrangements with a Canis lupus familiaris.)

We and the friends we'd invited to the lunch enjoyed Cylvia's entertaining description of Mahonia Hall. She led us through all three floors of the Governor's mansion.

Serena found some rooms more interesting than others. Like, any room with a cat bed.

Also, any room with a dog bowl.

A low-light of the tour for us came in the basement, where Zu Zu unexpectedly peed on the rug. She never has done this at home. Guess she wanted to leave her mark on the Governor's mansion (we didn't know our young dog was a Republican). Laurel cleaned the wet spot up with some paper towels from the kitchen.

Fortunately, we were told that the basement is the lair of Governor Kitzhaber's 16 year old son and his friends when they come to visit. Having been a teenage boy myself, I know that a little dog pee is well within their gross-out comfort zone.

Heading upstairs, Tessa posed dramatically.

(Martha Russell photo)

The upper floor features what Cylvia described as a ballroom with a nice wood floor. Zu Zu and Tessa enjoyed a bit of dog-dancing play on it. We were shown a small side room where, in the good old days of male dominance (I've heard of those days; haven't experienced them) men would retire to smoke cigars and engage in political man-talk while the women folk exchanged recipes, or whatever, in the ballroom.

Serena, our 13 year old dog, doesn't handle lots of steps very well. She stayed in a comfy spot on the ground floor next to the stairs while Cylvia showed us the upper floors.

Meanwhile, Ian of Iggy's Catering was doing his magic in the Mahonia Hall kitchen.

(Martha Russell photo)

Laurel and I had requested healthy vegetarian food, being health-minded vegetarians. Ian came through, big time. If you're looking for a quality caterer in the Salem area, check him out. We were impressed with the taste, looks, and organic-ness of the salad and main dish he served. (Naturally Ian also can go meat'y, if that's your thing.)

We all felt comfortable in the casual, yet also elegant, Mahonia Hall dining room. 

During lunch our dogs dreamed of whatever they dream about. Cats. Squirrels. Peeing on a Governor's rug. Whatever.

I didn't think about where Tessa was until I pushed back my chair when we were about to leave. Not surpisingly, the First Dog had been under the table, lying at Cylvia's feet.

(Martha Russell photo)

Martha Russell, a talented Willamette Humane Society volunteer, did some quasi-formal photo-taking after lunch. Here's Laurel and Cylvia with Serena, Zu Zu, and Tessa. 

Check out Martha's Adopt an Oregon Dog web site. She's an excellent photographer with a good sense of humor.

Many thanks to Cylvia Hayes, Oregon's First Lady, and Ian Johnson, Iggy's Catering, for a delightful lunch/tour at the Governor's mansion. And a special thanks to the First Cats for adding some zest to our visit. 

Tonight our dogs will be dreaming of their next trip to Mahonia Hall. I'll sneak into that room from the other direction... then slink behind the couch... and pop up right in front of that darned cat... and... [censored].

Notice what doesn't change in your life... and satisfies

I've gotten an insight into how to make life more satisfying. Focus on generally-unnoticed unchanges, what stays the same, rather than obvious alterations. 

Here's what I mean.

If your life is like mine, and I bet it is, it's full of damn's. For example: each example coming from recent actual My Life experience --

Damn, the water heater is leaking!
Damn, a wheel came off of my longboard!
Damn, I gained two pounds!
Damn, I tweaked my left hip and it feels weird!

In his fascinating new book, "Antifragile," Nassim Nicholas Taleb offers an insight into why these sorts of irritating damn's throw us off track in our search for happiness.

We notice what varies and changes more than what plays a large role but doesn't change. We rely more on water than on cell phones but because water does not change and cell phones do, we are prone to thinking that cell phones play a larger role than they do. 

Those words got me to thinking.

About what is important to my feeling of well-being, yet goes largely unnoticed because it is always there -- sort of like how a fish takes water for granted because it's immersed in it, but couldn't live without the liquid in which it floats and moves.

I concentrated my thoughts on my immediate surroundings, our home, since my wife and I have been doing some long-range pondering about where we'd like to live when our non-easy-care house on ten acres becomes too much of a hassle to maintain for us senior citizen baby-boomers.

The timing of that when has something to do with how we balance the irritations of our rural home against its pleasures. 

As noted above, I tend to notice the "damn's" related to maintenance of our house, yard, and acreage. When things go wrong I have no choice but to concentrate on dealing with them. Those problems are in the forefront of my home-awareness, while the unchanging background is pretty much taken for granted.

I'm trying to rectify that myopia by viewing my life from a more mindful, fresh perspective. 

For example, walking the dogs every evening, I'm aware of how much I enjoy the paths we take, all unpaved, natural, woodsy. Down to the creek, across the little bridges I built, up the hill past towering firs, around the community lake inhabited by ducks, geese, turtles, and various other critters. 

After twenty-two years of living here, I'm familiar with every step along that looping path. Changes tend to leap out more than what stays the same. Damn, someone rode their horse on the trail before the ground was dry enough; look at the hoof damage!

Now, though, I ponder how important that dog walk is for me. And how much I'd miss my surroundings if we moved somewhere else. How many homes are so close to a natural area with such a wonderful variety of plants and animals encountered in a half hour walk where usually I don't see another person?

What my wife and I have nearby all the time to enjoy is marvelous.

But too often we focus on the fallen tree that needs to be cut up, the blackberries that keep regrowing, the ground squirrels and moles that attack our yard. In truth these are just minor blemishes which barely affect our pleasurable view of where we live.

Why, then, do I zero in on them so much? Because, like Taleb says, they are glittery moving irritation-objects, distractions that capture my gaze instead of the unchanging background that gives me so much satisfaction.

I need to become a mindful fish, much more aware of the water in which I continually swim.

Why longboarders suck (I proudly suck triple)

I'm a skateboarder. 

That's how I started off referring to myself last July, when at the geezer'ish age of 63 (496, or thereabouts, in skateboarder years) I decided to get a longboard skateboard. So actually...

I'm a longboarder. 

Except it didn't take me long in my longboarding career to realize it was going to take me too long to learn how to push with my foot and stop by foot-braking or sliding, so I decided to get into pushing myself along with a stick on an even longer longboard. So...

I'm a land paddler. 

At least, that's what I say when, as often happens, people ask me what the heck it is I'm doing on a 5 foot bamboo board with big green wheels, cruising seven miles or so on up-and-down Minto Brown Island Park trails here in Salem, Oregon, offering me a terrific core and aerobic workout that's a lot of fun. 

"It's called land paddling," I tell them. "A lot like stand-up paddling on an enlarged surfboard. Except, water is softer than asphalt. On the plus side, I don't have to drive to a lake or the ocean and put on a wetsuit."

Mostly I get positive comments and looks -- cool's and thumbs-up -- from both young and old. Sometimes, though, I've gotten the feeling from certain young people that I am so, so, so wrong. 

Reading "Why Longboards Suck" by Willy Staley helped me understand why some skateboarders would consider me not only an affront to the holiness of their four-wheeled religion, but an apostate thrice over.

For one, I ride a longboard, not a skateboard.

For two, I paddle my longboard with a stick, not push it with my foot. 

For three, I've put brakes on one of my longboards, which will allow me to stop it with a pedal, instead of foot-dragging or sliding. 

Staley despises longboarders. Especially those who don't know how to stop the way he thinks they should. He longs for the Golden Age of skateboarding when the Thou Shalt Commandments he worships hadn't been broken by heathen longboarders.

Blessed with the art-school dropout pretense that taking part in an urban subculture can provide, and saddled with the pot-choked vocabulary of their ancestral homeland, skateboarders are very opinionated but economical with words. Asked how they feel about longboards, they typically resort to simple, timeless insults. Longboarders are kooks. Longboarders are losers. Longboarders suck. Superficial as it may seem, their blunt loathing is the key to understanding why the longboard is an insidious, parasitic vehicle.

...But when it comes to the question of what they can do, or rather what they enable their riders to do, the differences between skateboards and longboards start to pile up. A skateboard allows you to take part in nearly half a century of progress; a longboard enables you to roll and powerslide (and this only if you get really good at it, and if you have protective gloves).

...And though the longboard was designed with downhill skateboarding in mind (which is incredibly dangerous and requires both balls and talent) they are more frequently found on city streets and on college campuses, in bike lanes and walkways, used as a sort of cowardly and silly compromise between biking and walking. The convenience and ease of use they provide is a major selling point. Not only are they easy to use; they’re incredibly limiting, too.

You can’t even ollie with a longboard. The simplest of tricks, the one that has enabled everything that street skateboarding has become, is by design simply impossible with a longboard. Even those that do have a tail are too massive to reliably take off, and so long that it would take a massive ollie to even guarantee your rear wheels clear the smallest of curbs. They’re the dodo bird of the skateboarding world. Unfortunately, unlike the dodo, they won’t go away.

Perhaps they’re more like the ostrich: not only flightless, but also oversized, stupid and cowardly.

OK. That's an ignorant uninformed head-in-the-ass opinion. Beautifully written and argued, though. So kudos to Staley for stimulating debate on the subject. 

I'm no expert on church history, but I bet whoever was Pope at the time Martin Luther nailed his protestant theses to the wall had much the same attitude toward this fucking heretic as traditional skateboarders have toward longboarders.

Of course, senior citizen land paddling longboarders with a high-tech brake on their board are in an even more despicable realm of skateboarding desecration. Which, given my irreligious inclinations, fills me with considerable joyful satisfaction.

I'm not saying that all skateboarders are as closed-mindedly fundamentalist as Staley.

In fact, today I enjoyed hanging out at Salem's Exit Real World board shop, showing off the newly installed Brakeboard brakes on my Landyachtz Switch and getting some better bearings. The guys there are supportive of all varieties of skateboarding. And were impressed with the Brakeboard.

(I'll put up another post soon about my experience with the brakes; so far, I'm liking them.)

It's just surprising to me that the hang-loose whatever, dude skateboarding crowd can be so judgmental about longboarders who don't hew to their notion of what "real" skateboarding is all about.

Perusing comments on You Tube videos showing the Brakeboard brakes in action, I've been amazed at the overly obscene vitriol directed at the supposedly Oh So Wrong notion that maybe, just maybe, some longboarders would like to be able to stop safely and quickly via a mechanical means instead of a slide that is both tough to learn and difficult to carry out on a crowded city street or narrow trail.

Chill, dudes. Truly embrace your inner whatever.

For example, if old guys like me want to land paddle along on a longboard with brakes, look on us as skateboarders marching to the beat of our own different drummer. 

Isn't that what skateboarding is all about, doing your own thing?